MLB.com picks intriguing candidates that could be selected from each team in December’s Rule 5 draft. Though it requires patience and a roster spot, the Rule 5 draft has been a viable resource in team building, especially for worst to first hopefuls who are closer to the former than the latter. Notably, the Cubs and Astros, two recent exemplars of roster renovation, each took advantage of the process by snatching players (Hector Rondon and Marwin Gonzalez, respectively) who made significant contributions to their title campaigns.

By the middle of last season, Twins’ chief baseball officer Derek Falvey was already preparing for the possibility that Joe Mauer might retire, per the Athletic’s Dan Hayes (subscription link). The Twins continue to explore every option at first base, including moving struggling slugger Miguel Sano from third to first. One path they are unlikely to traverse is trading for a one-year rental like Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt. The focus of the 2019 season in Minnesota will be as much about monitoring the rebound efforts of Sano and center fielder Byron Buxton as making a push for the playoffs, and with such uncertainty around their two high-ceiling stars, Falvey and company aren’t ready for an all-in move like trading for Arizona’s All-Star first baseman. Still, seeking a multi-year option at first base does not equate to youth, necessarily, as they are open to players like Carlos Santana or recently-DFAed C.J. Cron, each of whom would have two years of team control if acquired.

Elsewhere around the infield, the Twins are open to engaging Jorge Polanco’s positional flexibility as well. Polanco and Sano are currently penciled in at shortstop and third base, but that could change depending on their offseason acquisitions. For now, they are in the market for an offensive-minded second baseman, in which case Polanco would stay at short. There are more than a few viable short-term options on the free agent market to keep second base warm for prospect Nick Gordon, who was recently added to the 40-man roster. You can check out MLBTR’s full Offseason Outlook for the Twins here.

In the dugout, Bill Evers rounds out Rocco Baldelli’s staff as the major league catching coach. Evers, 64, is a 30-year coaching veteran with experience as a bench coach, manager, and minor-league field coordinator. He managed Baldelli when he was a player in Triple-A back in 2002, a relationship redolent of Alex Cora’s hiring of Ron Roenicke as his bench coach. Roenicke, too, managed his future helmsman when Cora was a prospect coming up in the Dodgers system.

Nov. 22: The Indians announced the trade, revealing that they sent 19-year-old righty Ignacio Feliz to San Diego in return. Feliz spent the 2017 season with Cleveland’s affiliate in the Dominican Summer League and the 2018 campaign with their Rookie-level affiliate in the Arizona League.

After some significant control issues in 2017, Feliz took a huge step forward in 2018 against older competition, pitching to a 3.00 ERA with 10.8 K/9, 2.8 BB/9 and a ground-ball rate well north of 50 percent in 45 innings. Encouragingly for Padres fans, Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen opined that Feliz was the best prospect traded on the day of the 40-man deadline and provided a brief scouting report on the athletic young righty.

Nov. 20: The Padres are in agreement on a trade that’ll send right-hander Walker Lockett to the Indians, MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell reports (via Twitter). In exchange, San Diego will receive a minor league pitcher who doesn’t need to be added to the 40-man roster in advance of tonight’s deadline to protect players from the 40-man roster.

For San Diego, the trade boils down to clearing some space on the 40-man as they look to protect as much of their vaunted farm system from next month’s Rule 5 Draft as possible. It’s the second such trade they’ve made today, having already sent Colten Brewerto the Red Sox in an earlier swap. Quite likely, there’ll be more moves for the Friars when all is said and done.

It’s also the second such trade that Cleveland has made, as the Indians yesterday acquired righty Chih-Wei Hu from the Rays. Like Hu, Lockett will present Cleveland with some optionable depth for the pitching staff. The 24-year-old Lockett was hammered for 16 runs in 15 big league innings this season, but he showed strong ground-ball tendencies and solid control while pitching in the minors. Through 133 1/3 innings in Triple-A last season, Lockett posted a 4.73 ERA with 8.0 K/9, 2.2 BB/9 and a 47.3 percent ground-ball rate. The ERA, of course, isn’t pretty, but the Indians clearly believe he can improve with some adjustments under their watch.

San Diego was Arcia’s fourth organization in 2016 alone, as the former top prospect was designated for assignment by the Twins and bounced from Minnesota to Tampa Bay to Miami to San Diego on waivers. Once hoped to be the Twins’ right fielder of the future, Arcia hit just .203/.270/.366 this year and has batted a combined .219/.286/.369 in his past 287 plate appearances between the 2015-16 seasons. The 25-year-old unquestionably possesses pop — he’s homered 44 times in 1075 career plate appearances — but has looked consistently overmatched by left-handers, shows a lack of discipline at the plate and rates as a negative defender in the outfield.

Wallace, meanwhile, hit .189/.309/.318 in 256 plate appearances with San Diego this past season. The 30-year-old is a former top prospect himself, but the former first-rounder has never established himself as a quality regular or even a reliable bench option in the Majors. Wallace has had productive stretches — including above-average season totals in 2012 and 2015 (in small samples of work) — but he’s a cumulative .238/.316/.389 hitter. That’d cut it for a catcher or a defensively strong shortstop, but for a corner infielder the production is light.

The names added to the 40-man are headlined by Guerra, who was one of the centerpieces of last winter’s Craig Kimbrel blockbuster. Guerra was joined by Manuel Margot, Carlos Asuaje and Logan Allen in the trade that sent Kimbrel to Boston, and though he took a step back with a dreadful season (.202/.264/.325 in Class-A Advanced), the Padres still saw enough upside to dedicate a 40-man spot to him. Prior to the 2016 season, Guerra rated as a Top 60 prospect in the eyes of Baseball America, MLB.com, Baseball Prospectus and ESPN.